Ludendi's Rollerdrome

No Marshall kid ever had a birthday party at Ludendi's Rollerdrome. We were told that hosting a party there was reserved for the rich kids, whose parents were doctors or lawyers or oil men.

At least that's what I was told. My sister Mary remembers it differently. Mary says she was told we couldn't host a roller skating party at Ludendi's because we didn't know how to roller skate.

Judging by Jack Marshall's photo of me trying out my wheels (above) at a late 1950s party, maybe Mary was correct.

But when one of those other kids -- better coordinated or simply better off, it made no difference to me -- invited us to their skating party, it was a treat not to be missed.

Not just because of the roller skating, but because of Ludendi's Rollerdrome.

Long gone now -- reduced to rubble when the great, elevated Interstate 20 cut a wide concrete swath through our hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana in the 1960s -- Ludendi's Rollerdrome even then was a throwback to a bygone era. Its huge expanse of well worn plank wooden flooring certainly had hosted over the years tens of thousands of kids and adults at figure-skating competitions, roller hockey games, birthday parties and "free skating" by the time my generation got around to discovering it.

Ludendi's was a giant Quonset hut of a building, with a four-foot wall around the skating area and stair-stepped viewing areas on one side. At the far end was the only means of ventilation -- a huge electric fan the size of an airplane engine built into the wall.

You would arrive for the party, leave your gift on a table in the front, and then be fitted with roller skates that clamped onto your shoes. Then the games began. Follow the leader, crack the whip, even limbo for goodness sakes -- with a cane fishing pole as the limbo bar -- all while wearing wheels that today would be viewed by every personal injury lawyer as a meal ticket that never expires.

The full selection of Jack Marshall's photographs taken that day shows a variety of skill levels among the skaters...lots of flailing arms, flying bodies, and some kids -- like me -- holding on to the railing. But the constant in every picture is the smiles (see photo below). Every kid at Ludendi's Rollerdrome is smiling.

When the frantic skating rendered everyone good and tired and hot, we'd be directed to sit in folding theater-style seats bolted to one wall. There were many rules at Ludendi's, but the one I remember most was, once you sat down, you stayed put. Because then Ludendi's owner (was it Mr. Ludendi himself? I never knew...) would come along, skating backwards in his personal, high-boot skates, and ask each child in order for his or her soft drink preference. "Coke....Coke...Nehi....Coke...Chocolate...Chocolate...7 Up...Coke," he would repeat loudly, and in the front of the rink, someone could be heard pulling the ice-cold bottles out of the chest, popping off the caps using one of those metal bottle openers affixed to the front of the drink machine, and then placing the drinks, in the exact order they were requested, in a wooden soft drink case. It was an assembly line operation that even Henry Ford would've deemed efficiency itself.

When Mr. Ludendi reached the end of the line of kids, he'd quickly whirl back to the front of the rink, and return with the case of soft drinks, each bottle neck ringed by a Southern Maid Donut (the Southern Maid Donut shop was right down the street from Ludendi's Rollerdrome). You took your drink out of the case in the same perfect order as it had been loaded. And those cold drinks and warm gooey doughnuts tasted better than any birthday cake I had ever eaten.

When everyone was rested and full, it was back out onto the floor for some more out-of-control skating. The grand finale was when the lights were darkened (despite most parties being afternoon affairs, Ludendi's Rollerdrome still could be made fairly dark inside) and the big crystal mirrored ball in the ceiling began to spin, spraying a mad pattern of moving reflected light points throughout the rink.

And then, high from the sugary drinks and donuts, hot from the relentless Shreveport sun beating down on the rink's metal roof, dazzled by the spinning lights, a bit woozy on our land legs after two hours on roller skates, and probably nursing a major stomach ache from that perfect combination of factors, we yelled over our shoulders one last "Happy Birthday" to the honoree and scooted out to our parents' waiting cars.

Another perfect party at Ludendi's Rollerdrome!

- Tom Marshall, New York City